Whether you’re looking to buy a new set of wheels or just need to know how wide the wheels on your vehicle are, wheel measurements is a simple process. However, there are some misconceptions about what constitutes proper measurement—and that’s why many people end up buying the wrong size tires for their vehicles.
So let’s get started with a rundown on how to measure your existing wheels and determine whether they’re the right widths for your car or truck:
Use a full-width measurement.
The full-width measurement is the most important one to consider. It’s also the easiest to get right, as long as you follow these instructions:
- Measure from the outside of one rim to the outside of another. Don’t measure from the inside of one rim to another–that will give you an inaccurate reading!
- Make sure your tape measure is straight and level with each other when taking these measurements. If it’s not, then all bets are off; this is why having a lot of tools at hand helps so much in any kind of job like this one where accuracy matters most (especially if money depends on it).
Have the correct tire size.
The first thing to do is determine the correct tire size. This can be done by using a tire size chart, which lists all of the possible sizes for each type of vehicle. Each tire will have its own size and will be measured in inches from bead bowl to bead bowl. For example:
- Tire width = 31″
- Rim width = 8″ (This refers to how wide your rims are)
Measure from bead bowl to bead bowl.
Measure from bead bowl to bead bowl. This is the most important measurement you can take, as this will determine how wide your tire will be and if it’s compatible with your rims.
Don’t measure from sidewall to sidewall or valve stem to valve stem–you’ll only get an approximate figure that may or may not work for your wheel setup. Also, don’t use rim edge measurements because they’re too small for most tires (the exception being low profile tires).
Wheel measurement is easy once you know how to do it properly
Wheel measurement is a simple process, and if you follow these steps you should be able to get the right size of wheels for your vehicle.
- Measure the width of your existing tires using a tape measure. The number on this measurement will indicate how wide each tire is (in millimeters).
- Measure from bead bowl to bead bowl on each wheel, then add them together for an approximate total diameter measurement. This way, if one has been replaced but not rotated with another identical one, it won’t throw off your calculations too much–just make sure that all four tires are exactly identical before measuring!
As long as we’re talking about tires: remember that because they’re round in shape (and therefore have no flat edges), finding their exact diameters can be difficult without special equipment like calipers or micrometers designed specifically for such tasks; however there are ways around this problem which we’ll discuss later…
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of measuring wheels correctly. As we mentioned before, there are many different factors that can affect your wheel size and width, so it’s important to take all of them into account.
By measuring from bead bowl to bead bowl (and not just width), you’ll be able to find out exactly what size tires will fit on your vehicle’s existing rims or new aftermarket ones!
